SERVING UP SUCCESS

Francine Powers is one of the Emerging Business Program’s true success stories

By Steve Pate

August 25, 2009

When Francine Powers first got involved with Super Bowls in 1995, she probably didn’t know a touchback from a cornerback. Still might not.

But the NFL’s Emerging Business Program does not award Super Bowl contracts based on football IQ. It’s all about being certified and qualified…then grabbing the ball and running with it.

Powers opened her South Florida catering business, We’re Having A Party, Inc., in 1990 when she used her own oven to cook a turkey tetrazzini entrée for a private party staged by a Broadway producer. Five years later, still in the process of moving her business out of her home, Powers participated in her first of three Super Bowls.

Ambrosia Productions of Los Angeles had been contracted by ABC to coordinate a reception that the network was throwing for 800 of its best friends just prior to the game on Super Sunday. Ambrosia contracted We’re Having a Party and three other caterers.

“We provided food and service personnel for two of the 10 food stations set up inside a very, very large tent in the parking grounds of Dolphins Stadium,” Powers recalls. “We had a seafood station and another serving a Thai curry dish.”

That Super Bowl success led to Powers’ participation a mere three weeks later in an Academy Awards catering event for 2,000 guests — completely across the country in Hollywood.

Today, looking back on her own involvement in the Emerging Business Program, Powers strongly encourages North Texas minority- and women-owned businesses to get certified now for Super Bowl XLV coming to Cowboys Stadium in February 2011.

“Don’t expect to get rich overnight,” she cautions, before adding, “but it’s such an enriching experience.”

She explains, “Before my first Super Bowl, I had a somewhat limited view of catering, and limited expectations of what catering was all about. The Emerging Business Program really gave me a vision that I did not have before. That includes the extent of the décor, and the kinds of equipment. I really started to look at my business differently.

“I got a first-hand view of how to present myself, and how to stage events for 2,000 to 3,000 people. Once you’ve seen it done, you have a different view altogether.”

A few years later, someone needed food prepared and served at a religious conference of 3,000. They wanted their formal dinner on Monday evening, and then their luncheon on Tuesday afternoon.

Plated dinners require chefs, quality food, silverware, china, linens, a wait staff — all capable of serving dinner one evening, then turning it all around for a lunch some 17 hours later.

“There was only one catering rental company in South Florida large enough to handle those demands,” Powers says. “But having seen it done, and having been exposed to it, I had the level of confidence that even though we were a small business, we could take it on. My attitude was I would figure out how to do it.”

These days, We’re Having A Party Inc. includes four full-time employees: a chef, an events coordinator, an office manager/marketing director and an administrative assistant. So far, they have worked three Super Bowls, the ones played in 1995, 1999 and 2007.

How does it work? First, you get certified as a minority- or women-owned business. Then qualified businesses get listed in a database, under their categories of expertise. And then, when companies and organizations need a particular service, they check the database, send out their request for proposals and make the hires.

“Be sure that you are qualified to do the job that you are electing to bid on,” Powers says. “Make sure you can provide the quality that they want at a competitive price. Make sure that you are ready to step up to the plate.”

Then? Bon appétit.

“To be on the property of the stadium where the game is being played, you feel the energy,” Powers says. “This is an event that comes around once a year, that is viewed worldwide. Apart from the dollar value of the contract, this is just really an enriching feeling and rush.

“In 2007 I was standing there thinking, “I’m so proud of my business to be a part of this. We have been selected, we have been able to participate professionally, and they are really happy with what we’ve done.

“Coming from a small business that I started in my kitchen, I really find that to be a tremendously enriching experience.”